Are Amazon Taking On YouTube For The Short Form Video Market?

Amazon already compete with the likes of Hulu and Netflix to provide long form video content to its customer base but now it appears to be eyeing up the potential YouTube audience by approaching short form video makers to add this type of content to its services. Amazon want to tap into the demand for the shorter clips that currently excel on YouTube, offering MCNs and creators a chance to earn extra revenue, not only from their downloads but also from related products displayed alongside the videos. According to a report from AdAge, Amazon are rumoured to be offering pay-per-video download options as well as branded channel pages.

According to the report, Amazon have been reaching out to the Multi Channel Networks behind some of the most popular YouTube stars to see whether they would be interested in providing content for their Instant Video outlet. Amazon have been a part of the VoD market since 2010 and their Prime Instant Video store carries around 150,000 TV shows and movie titles.

Although no deals have been signed and any significant activity isn't expected to take place until 2014, the rumours of an alternative revenue stream for creators away from YouTube, sounds a viable option. YouTube's monetary reward system has frustrated many for a long time, and although the site does offer creators a chance to release their work via their paid subscription features and of course via ad monetization, there continues to be discontent. Despite the fact that YouTube has more than a billion visitors a month and is the most popular video site in the world, multi channel networks and their content partners are on the lookout for other platforms to cut down the dependency on Google's video portal. We've already seen some movement here, particularly Maker's purchase of Blip earlier this year. At the moment, there are no details yet as to how the Amazon arrangement might work for the MCNs or for the creators or whether signing an exclusive agreement with Amazon would preclude content from being shown via a similar subscription service on YouTube. We'll keep you up to date as news comes in.